The Tale of a LongCleeve Lass
by Hobbit Freak
Summary: Pippin stumbles upon what he thinks is a sickly lass, and believes that he can help her to taste health again. Yet Diamond Northtook is as pathetic as ever. Will Pippin's plan succeed?
1. Chapter 1

J.M.J

From a Took to a Took:

The Tale of a Long-Cleeve Lass

The North-Farthing in late summer . . . mmm. The barley harvesting in the low fields; golden grain waving in the deliciously cool wind, sweating yet cheerful hobbits at work with the scythe, all underneath cobalt blue skies. It makes the heart want to sing, the sight of the North-Farthing in the late summer. And the most charming of all the busy little towns in the north was Brewbine, a village in the Long-Cleeve district. How Brewbine bustled during the harvesting season! One would see the shopkeepers preparing their autumn produce in the town square, while the farmer-families would all be out in the ripe fields. The largest of these families was the Northtooks, seventeen children to be precise. All of them were already grown and settled themselves, all with big families too. All of them were gone from the old Long-Cleeve hole . . . all except one. The youngest Northtook, Diamond, was twenty-eight years of age with long hair the color of the barley in the sweeping fields.

Yet she was a tiny thing, sickly her entire life, which made her usually in a cantankerous mood. At the moment, she was in her dusty room, in her dusty bed while her mother sat by her and bathed her forehead with a linen rag. Diamond moaned from her headache, trying to get the irritating wet rag off. "Mother! I need genealogy books! Not…not sopping handkerchiefs!" she protested in a whine, testily throwing her blankets away. Mrs. Opal Northtook was growing impatient; she had been in this stuffy room for two hours now. "Diamond, you must have this for your aches. Really now, Diamond!" she said as the lass had begun to sniffle. The sniffles gradually turned into shaking sobs as Diamond hid herself underneath the covers. "Diamond, Diamond!" Mrs. Northtook soothed, gently rubbing the lump underneath the blanket, "Here now! Here's something to cheer you; tonight we are keeping a guest. Captain Peregrin Took as it is! Mr. Took is very celebrated down in Tuckborough, isn't he? Won't you want to come down for a little while to meet him?"

"I'm too sick!" was all that her daughter would answer. After some time, Opal left Diamond with dried eyes and an enormous genealogy book to keep her quiet. As the door clicked, Diamond settled back into her bed, thinking that those Travelers had heads much too big for their hats.

"Thank you, Mrs. Northtook, but I'd better not; I think I shall burst if I had a single more mushroom." Pippin laughed, giving a winning smile to his hostess. "As you wish, Mr. Took! Would you and Mr. Northtook like to go talk business now? I'm sure that you've been delayed long enough by all of my impish grandchildren." Opal said, glancing hastily around at the dozens of little offspring running about the room and asking their guest questions. "Oh no, ma'am, I'm quite enjoying it!" Pippin said, giving the lass's that was seated in his lap hair a ruffle. "Mister Per'grin, Mister Per'grin!" shouted the little boy who was climbing over his shoulders. Mrs. Northtook frowned and told him to hush and get down. "It's alright! What'r you wanting, Birch?" the young Took asked, lifting Birch down off of his shoulders and placing him next to his sister Amethyst. "Dija fight n' nasty trolls?" the little lad inquired, his big blue eyes aglow and his dark curls bobbing.

Pippin struggled to swallow down his surprise; the boy reminded him so much of Frodo. "I did." he whispered, stroking Birch's head. They remained like that for some time, at least until one of the numerous fathers called out loudly, "Alright! All of you small Northtooks and Broadbanks and Burrowses and Deepdelvers and Brownlocks, time for bed!"

A resounding groan was heard from the juniors. Pippin set the two children down and bid them go to their mothers. As expected, Birch and Amethyst both griped and clung to his neck. Pippin chuckled and stood up with them both in his arms, walking them across the room them to their mother. "Mrs. Broadbank, you called for these little hooligans?" he said jokingly as he approached the little ones' mother who was busily gathering her family's discarded shawls and overcoats. The good lady smiled at the sight of the well-known adventurer holding her wee ones with care.

"Ah! Mr. Peregrin, are they bothering you? Come here, Amethyst. Birch, you too!" Pippin only grinned and wished them all a fair night and then strolled away to find Mr. Northtook. He inquired about him to Mrs. Opal Northtook, who said that he would be in the drawing room smoking as he wasn't one for the commotion. Pippin then casually strolled into the drawing room, where he found Mr. Northtook asleep and snoring in his chair by the fire. _Better not wake the old hobbit! Most likely he had a hard day's work._ He thought. "My! What an interesting family tree." Peregrin exclaimed softly on seeing a huge, aged genealogy scroll stretched upon the far wall. Inquisitive as he was, the curious hobbit took careful steps across the dark room. He passed the line of orange fire glow on the carpet silently. He passed Mr. Northtook with stealth. He was almost there now. He…tripped. CRASH! THUMP! After the stars had cleared from Pippin's vision and the room had ceased to spin, he shakily sat up.

He began gruffly while rubbing his rump, "Owww…what in the name of the Valar…" That's when he saw her. And how could he not have seen the lass when she had a long knife pointed right at his nose? Pippin just sat there half in stupidity half in enchantment, his green eyes fixed on the pale face set with a dreadful grimace. "Umm…" he finally said in a whisper, still aware of his sleeping host, "Can you please get the blade off of my nose?" On cue, the girl's legs suddenly started to wobble beneath her nightgown, and her expression swiftly became frightened. "Eek!" she squeaked before losing her balance altogether and falling forwards. In an instant, the knife had nicked Pippin's cheekbone and the lass was cowering on the floor next to him. "Ouch! Heaven's to Elves! What was that for?" he now said with some force, rather taken aback by the sharp sting from the blade. Mr. Northtook snorted and tossed in his slumber, and the hobbit grew quieter.

Yet when Pippin turned back to inspect the homicidal-lass, she simply was not there anymore.

_Hmm. I wonder who she was and what she was about?_ He thought to himself while tenderly reaching up and probing the cut on his face with his finger.

He certainly wasn't scared of her, that's a fact.


	2. Chapter 2

J.M.J

Saphirabrightscale: Thank you for adding my story to your favorites.

PoppyECM.6-13:  Thanks for favoring this!

_Chapter Two_

"C'mon, Gowan! We can't miss out on seeing Captain Took test our best stallion!"

"I'm coming!"

Gowan dropped down from her perch on a thick tree branch to where her brother was lingering about as long as he could manage.

"Gowan, let's get going!"

The lass scowled as darkly as she could, standing up from where she had landed on her rump. "I'll be blest if I can with you going on like that, Bill." she muttered before dashing off ahead of him. "Hey!" Bill exclaimed with a hint of a whine as he thought that he should be the first to see the Captain.

The two siblings reached the cow pasture at the same time, though.

"Ha! Beat you!" Gowan huffed triumphantly, flopping back onto the plush meadow grass. Yet Bill was already hanging over the fence and making noises at the peaceful herd of cows and cared not if a girl had won against him. "Moooooo! Muuuuuurh! Hee hee! Gowan, look at their faces when I say it." he giggled, putting his hands on top of his head to imitate horns. The lass rolled her eyes and stuck out her pink tongue as she climbed up the fence to get a better view of things. Suddenly, her face lit up with a dimpled smile.

"Look! Look Billy! It's Uncle and Captain Peregrin! Hooray!"

Bill started his boyish whooping and hollering at the two adults entering the pasture. "Shut it, Bill!" Gowan hissed, knocking her kin off of the fence with one push.

Meanwhile, Flasco Northtook was leading a large black pony into his father's pasture while chatting gaily with his prospective customer. Pippin had been looking to buy a larger pony, one more fitted to his newly acquired size, and he knew that the Long-Cleevers bred an outsized sort of beast used for tilling the North Farthing's rocky soil. "Well I must say, your father has many helping hands around the place, doesn't he?" Pippin asked as the two came to a halt in the center of the pasture.

"Ah, well, I guess so." Flasco responded as he took the bridle from Pippin and slipped it over the pony's head, "You see Da had a lot of daughters and only three of us sons, so there are us and all of our brother-in-laws to lend a hand."

"That's nice." Pippin said unflappably, his mind now drifting back to last night's curious events. _Many daughters?_ He wondered _Perhaps she was one of them . . . no, that lass couldn't have been a bonnie brown Northtook!_

As Peregrin mounted the high steed with only a bit of squirm and struggle, the lad remembered the interesting girl's features.

_So pale and wan! Looked as if she had never seen sunshine, and that was noticeable even in the firelight. And in her nightclothes, too! _

_Yet her eyes . . . they were so, so green and full of life for an instant, that is, before she nearly decapitated me with that butchering knife. And Merry had said that the lasses up here were always in the bloom of health. _

He banished the thoughts from his mind, though. He had some riding to do. Standing upright in the saddle, Pippin bent his torso forward, keeping the bottom half of him as straight as a ramrod.

Before Flasco could blink, hobbit and pony were gone in a pounding of hoofs on turf, which was spraying up behind the animal like a rain shower. The Northtook was impressed as he watched Captain Peregrin canter around the pasture in perfect form. Even the little children observing the scene saw the almost regal way the future Thain appeared to bear himself. As for Pippin, well, he was feeling as if there were nothing else in the world except for the deep blue sky above and the fleeting green below. His hose were drenched in sweat, but he didn't care for his loose Gondorian blouse let in a plentiful supply of airflow.

"Knees pressed tight, back straight, muscles firm." he muttered in between pants, with ease steering the pony into a sharp right turn.

_I guess all of Merry's training has paid off. Won't Éomer be pleased, though?_

Diamond sniveled as she peaked out of her heavy linen curtain down at the cows below. One could hear the lass's teeth grinding from the other side of the room.

"I _cannot_ believe that he is riding _my_ horse! My horse!"

A groan escaped her lips; what was she talking about? That wasn't her horse. No, it was about to become the, the . . . burglar's horse. Diamond had known that Captain Took was coming; her mother had told her so. So why, oh why, oh why did she think that he was a burglar?

"All I wanted to do was protect father!" she now whispered, sinking down to her knees while clutching the curtain. An angry sob suddenly burst forth from the depths of her chest after twenty minutes of brooding, and she furiously yanked at the long drapery, thinking that the Captain had probably alerted all of Brewbine to her mishap.

_I hate him! I hate, hate, hate him!_ Diamond screamed inside, giving the curtain one last tug, which was far too strong, for the rod, fixture and all came crashing down on her head. It made an enormous racket, and the lass thought that for sure she would be caught out of bed. She struggled with all of her might to untwist the fabric from her body to no avail as footfalls rapidly approached the door.

_I'm done for!_ Diamond despaired as the oaken door came creaking open. Diamond nearly died when she saw who was there.

There stood Captain Peregrin Took with twinkling green eyes and grinning mouth.


	3. Chapter 3

J.M.J

PoppyECM.6-13: Thanks for the support! It really helps to know that someone likes it.

Note: I'm sorry this took so long to get up! I need some more support & ideas for it though. So if you have any, don't be shy!

_Chapter Three_

Pippin had no idea what to do now. He had heard the noisy bang coming from this room, and just had to see what was going on. And he did, of course not regarding the

"PRIVATE" sign posted on the door, taking the liberty of letting himself in . . . without knocking. Now he was confronted with what looked like a mess to him; a lass all twisted up in drapery and getting even more so by her deplorable struggles. It almost seemed as if she was actually trying to mask her face with the shades.

"Hey ho! I'll help you out, miss!" Pippin cried out, trying desperately to remember what Merry had told him about attempting to be a gentleman, even when it was not convenient for him. He set off toward the fraught lass as fast as he could, which merely resulted in him catching his overly-large feet on a chair and landing right on top of her. Before he could regain his head, the surprised Took was thrown at least three feet away with a notable force.

"Oi you! Thief! Burglar! Rouge!" shouted the fiery lass, yanking the drapes off of her head. Presently her face was revealed, and the befuddled Pippin felt mixed emotions. First it was that of shock; the homicidal lass from last night! Eek, run! Secondly he felt a warm, tingly flush rise up in his cheeks.

_She's the most Tookish lass I've ever seen! _He thought in happy wonder, staring into a faultless pale face with flashing green eyes . . . why, they almost matched his own! Yet he quickly shook the thought from his head: he was a future Thain and he didn't deserve to be talked to like this. Anyways, he might even get a chance to pay her out for the nick in on his cheek. Standing up with a noble air, Peregrin gave a cough into his hand.

"Very sorry to have disturbed your, uh," he paused, crinkling his nose up at the chaos in front of him, "exercising, so I'll take my leave now."

With that, Pippin turned and tried to feel furious; he was the Prince of the Halflings after all. Yet those glittering deep green eyes kept flashing in his memory, even as he exited the room.

_I shouldn't let myself start admiring a complete stranger . . . moreover one that wants my blood and looks as of she'd wither away with the next gust! _

He could hear gentle sobbing as he stepped across the threshold. A lump gathered in his throat. _Those eyes are afflicted with great tears . . . because of me!_ He thought remorsefully, at once swiveling back around. One great big mistake that little move was. In next to no time a knobby clog came cutting through time and space only to plant itself right on Pippin's right cheekbone, unfortunately the opposite one that had been wounded when he was seeking Mr. Northtook the other night.

"OWWWWWWW!"

Pippin hunched over, clutching his burning face. Before he could have any other reaction to this "outrage" as he was thinking, the squeals of many a concerned lady came echoing down the hall. Pippin's nostrils were flaring with indignation and admiration as he stumbled away with a hissed, "Payback, wee Northtook!"

Meanwhile, our pretty little lass was feeling a great pride swelling up inside of her; she had hurt her enemy! _Lovely,_ she thought smugly, _I've always wondered what it'd be like to smack someone . . . and I've struck two blows already!_

The excitement was obviously just all too much for the poor girl.

If Diamond was a revengeful sort of lass, than Peregrin was twice so, and at that moment was plotting out a scheme in the other room while nursing his shiny bruise.

"Oh, she shall get paid up for this! And my brilliant brain shall do everything!" Pippin almost shouted to no one in particular, the edges of his mouth turning up in conspiring glee.


End file.
